First of June Blooms

Hello Ladies,
I feel alot better today.. Some times my stress is so stupid LOL I have had it under control but yesterday it got the better of me.... Thank you all for your kindness... It means allot...
I have a group picture of the plants that arrived yesterday.. Well there are two not in it... Also the next picture will be my Ruby with its second bloom on it... So far I still think this is my favorite.... Brenda and Nancy the blooms are still on them but some may die but I will try to keep them going... I can't thank you both for all you shared with me..
Hugs,
Susan

Ruby,
Sue

Hi ya ladies,

Very pretty plants Kim.

Great pictures! Gail your sinns are beautiful! Love your story.

Lou,I'm glad your ok. That touch of spice is awesome!!!!

Brenda,Rio Das Pedras9dark) is too cute.I didn't know kohlerias cme that small.Nice! Have a great trip..

Hi there Nancy:)

Susan,Great bunch of streps you have there.Stress has a way of catching up with you. Glad to hear your better today.

I love trading! I got a wonderful box from Gail yesterday(sorry gail) I can't take a picture,I dropped my camera on the concrete patio and it works NO more.LOL.

I am so sorry your broke your camera.. I get lost if my batteries die none the less if I broke it...LOL I am hoping I will be getting a box from Gail also pretty soon.... This weekend I am hoping to put allot of streps in solo cups and try and root them... I got my big bio dome up from the basement so I can use that to grow them in...
After I posted the other photo's the doorbell rang and it was my order from Brennan and I am thrilled... So tomorrow I am going to put wicks in the new ones I got from the great ladies here and also take cuttings to try and grow so I can share down the road. Here is a picture of them...
Hugs,
Susan

pretty pics.............susan and dimmer........you are next on the send out list........but Susan, you said you didn't want any avs. Those are the only plants I have unless you want strep leaves. Would be happy to send you strep leaves............

Jan, I am so mad that I gave my camera away not even knowing that you would need one.........bummer..........

Have to take a nap.............

I forgot to thank Brenda and jannich for the boxes! Jan, we are going to have the biggest collection of streps and wasps ever. Thanks so much and I potted them up all afternoon..........Brenda and Jan had totally different streps than I do.............

Susan, you bought out Brennan's!!! I have those plants also except for the Shiloh you got.

I would love leaves Gail as I rooted the first ones I got really good then I had a brain fart and forgot all about how to root them . I rotted one whole batch but this time I am ready...LOL I am going to use my bio dome and will try again... I hope to root allot of the named ones so I can share with others. My Roulette Azur is getting blooms growing now.. I expected to have the two of them the cherry and the azur to be my best flowers when they bloomed, now I am not saying I don't like the cherry but so far I love the Ruby...and two of the purples and then this last one of the pink with the little extra petal in the middle... I just noticed when I was taking out the new plants that one of the pink/red has that also...
Hugs,
Susan

Ok.............go for it, Susan...........I think that several of us are trying new methods and will compare when we have babies..........This time I am using perlite, vermiculite and just a bit of Volkmann's wicking mix with Park's Domes of course..............

I have had no luck with just perlite... I use soil and perlite and this seems to work for me.. Well it did the last time. I still have leaves growing in solo cup without domes and some growing in domes... This time I am going to dome them right from the begining. I am hoping for good results. Time will tell... I also have some seeds and they scare me to death but I am going to try ... With seeds after I dome them how often do you take the top off or spray them? I planted some last month and they have not grown, now these were old seeds but they look to wet . So maybe I was killing them with to much love..LOLOL
Hugs,
Susan

Hi ya ladies! Look at all these beautiful blooms I've been missing! Wow! Just gorgeous!

Gail: I love that story ... made my day!

Well, finally our roof is going to be done - roofers are due to begin next Monday at 7:00 a.m. I sure hope it's a quick process. Then, next Thursday the pool company is finally scheduled to come drain and refinish the pool and another company will be doing the pool deck. I have been so busy the past few weeks working in the yard ... clearing underbrush along the entire length of the side of our property. Our yard trash people are not going to like us again tomorrow when they see what we have out at the curb for pick up! Eight trash cans and another 17 huge 55 gal bags of yard debris. Still not totally done clearing but almost ... there's just a little area in the corner under a palm tree. Most of the clearing we've been doing is outside our property line. The city/county last year had someone top all the trees along the road and they did chip most of it and haul it away but let a lot of branches just fall and get stuck in the trees and they have finally fallen out. My husband had to take his chain saw to a lot of them because they were so big. Then a few weeks ago the city/county had someone mow along the edge ... mowed down a huge area of really beautiful blooming lantana. Their machine mangled a bunch of it and just left it all sitting there. They never ever clean up the mess they make ... just half mow and leave it. That side of our house has many large split leaf philodendron's and we got a wheelbarrow full of empty liquor bottles, beer bottles and cans, styrofoam cups along with other trash mixed in with all the brush! Litterbugs .... Arrrgh! Today I found 2 more beer bottles someone had thrown out of their car. It's been so dry here I am really concerned about someone tossing a lit cigarette out their car window and starting a brush fire! There was another fire today in a county south of us. Scary how dry we are. I will gladly make a trade to someone for some rain! Any takers? Can someone send me a lot of rain?

Well, I am going to check out some of the other forums ... waiting for the Basketball game to come on at 9 O'clock.

Have a great evening everybody!

Susan, once you dome something you don't need to water again, period. Just leave the dome on so it doesn't dry out. With seeds, I just use my regular mix put the seeds on the damp top of the soil, pinch a little bit of the tiny vermiculite to barely cover the seeds. Then I spray them once and never again until the dome comes off because they are nice big seedlings. At this point without a dome, they will need to be watered from the bottom of the tray and never on the top.

glad you thought that 'girls' thing was as funny as I thought it was, LIn.
Good luck on all your work............and that is a lot of work going on.
We don't dare throw a cigarette out right now as I think we are in some kind of small drought.

I thought that was wonderful... I did not thank you and I should have... I am grateful to have you all here... Ok so with doming you spray once and that's it? That is what I did wrong with the last seeds they were to wet. I thought you were to wet them more. Well what do you do if there is no dampness on the domes ? Don't spay them at all? Sorry for all the questions...
Hugs,
Susan

If your dome fits right ( and it will as I saw yours from Park Seed) their should be humidity. Also, I always try to make sure the tray is full of propagating something.......along with seeds if you don't have enough seeds..........the more seed pots and cutting pots you have in the tray the higher the humidity will be.

I can remember one time when I only have 5 strep leaves stuck in 5 little pots..........the strep leaves began to wilt............fill the tray with something to propagate..........either seeds or seeds and cuttings

Ok and thanks that makes sence... I never thought about putting the seeds in there... That is great.... Well this lady is off to bed... Thanks again.
Susan

I have been Whinning that my flower are not Blooming well lookey lookey what I got
Dimmer
PS Most are no names

This is called kentucky Gooseberry

No Name

This is one of my Streps Butter Blues

Last No Name

Love all of them but that Kentucky Gooseberry is great.

Kim,
Your flowers are beautiful... You grow girl...LOL Looks like AV's like you... They still kinda hate me...LOL but hey I like the streps and they kinda like me...LOL
Hugs,
Susan

Thanks Girls I try what ever will grow I win some and I lose some But I am happy
Hugs Kim

Dimmer Love that Kentucky Gooseberry..all are pretty of course..lol..thats just my favorite : )

This is my one and most probably only chirita I will ever from leaf..I said probably my only because it took over a year from the time I started the leaf until my 1st bloom..LOL..and the plant is still an itty bitty thing! Do all chiritas grow so slow?? anyway...lol..its Chirita spadiciformis and I do love the cute bloom : )

Nice going Nancy you done good I think that I just got my first one from Susan Last week
Hugs
Kim

nancy, I just sent Kim all my chiritas (what is left) but they are just as easy to start as strep leaves (or easier......just takes more time).......

Good luck...........

Thanks..Kim let me adopt a bunch of her chirita babies awhile back and they are too cute...I really do love chiritas just don't have the patience or room for that matter..LOL.. anymore to start them from leaves...I grow in spurts..1st av's and chiritas..now streps..whats next?..lol...

Oh, that's a nice Chirita, Nancy ... love the bloom on that baby! I think some Chirita's are slower growers than others. I have one called 'Little Dragon' that I bought over a year ago and it's still tiny, and another I got at the same time is C. 'Linearifolia' ... same thing ... very slow growing, if at all. Neither of them look too great.

Lin, I got mad at my Little Dragon about 9 months ago because she wouldn't grow at all! In the trash she went and no remorse about it.

I am falling in love with african violet trailers and sinningias. I feel so lucky to have Jo's Violets in Victoria which is only an hour from me and I can hand pick my plants. This one, Yesterday's Valentine, I bought because I like her foliage with the red backing and the shape of her leaf.

She is now starting to bloom and I can't wait for the other trailers to bloom.

I know that you all have seen this bloom, but today I measured her and the bloom is actually exactly 3" across. Can't wait for my seed to come. She is Sinningia speciosa hybrid 'Red with White Dots'.
I ordered the same seed.

One of my Vandas just did this today! Excited can't even express what I am feeling since I overwintered her outside this year.

Can you see on the new stalk that she is going to open up a lot of flowers at the same time.

Two new blooms on this orchid.

Had to show you the bloom on Dracula's Shadow on a baby baby plant. I have also had a big plant of her and the blooms get twice this size. I love her!

Oh, soo pretty Gail! I only had one trailer AV a few years ago and loved it. It was one I lost last fall when something got to a lot of my plants.

Love that Vanda. I hung all of my orchids out in the tree a few weeks ago and drat if the birds aren't picking through and stealing the LFS from the baskets! I've had two orchids I found dead on the ground below the tree, another one missing totally (wonder if the birds decided they wanted to decorate their nest with a blooming orchid? Almost all of the labels have been either blown out of the baskets or the birds/squirrels are taking them out ... now I have no idea what's what! I think I'm going to have to pile orchid bark on top of the spaghnum moss in hopes the birds can't do more damage. Of course I see squirrels in that tree all the time too, they could be burying nuts. As much as I love critters, I sure wish they would stay out of my plants! I have a couple of buds on orchids too ... don't have a clue which ones they are but I will still enjoy the flowers once they open!

I was sitting out in the backyard on the bench this evening and heard a dove cooing, but it was different than the many darker gray mourning doves we have all over the neighborhood. I got my bird book out and found that it's called a ringed turtledove. From what I've read it must have escaped from it's cage because there are no known wild populations anymore. These are the ones used by magicians and sold as pets. It's such a pretty dove, it was eating at one of the feeders so I sure hope it can survive in the wild.

This message was edited Jun 6, 2008 9:03 PM

I love the birds that come around the house. I have never even seen a ringed turtledove and you got a good shot! She doesn't even act like she is afraid the camera as I noticed you were under the biggest part of the tree.

She didn't seem afraid at all. When I talked to her she began walking toward the end of the branch towards and I thought for a minute that maybe she was tame and would come close but she just sat in the tree watching me.

I love birds and have about ten feeders out in the yard. I spend a fortune on birdseed. And, we had the mockingbirds nesting all over this year. I have been cutting up blueberries, raisins, grapes, cherries and apricots for them ... it's so much fun to watch the adults feed the babies! Now the babies are flying all over. They land on the brick wall in front of my house and screech and cry to be fed. I have a terra cotta plant saucer right there on the wall with the berries in it and they will eat on their own and then screech until an adult bird comes to feed them ... funniest thing I ever did see. It's like they know how to do it themselves but they still want that attention from mama! We have loads of bluejays and cardinals with babies this year too. The jay babies fly from tree to tree and wait for the adults to feed them ... very noisy in the morning and late afternoon, but so much fun to watch!

Here's the red bellied woodpecker

And, a different one at the feeder

Mornin!

Great pictures Kim.Your plants are really starting to bloom now..

Nancy,that's the cute flower on your chirita.

Gail,Beautiful as always.I can't get over how big the bloom is on that sinningia,wish mine would open it buds.

Lin,Thats a great shot of the turtledove.Amazing! I wonder where it came from. I love the birds too!

Have a good weekend everybody.

Oh I love the birds... I have never given them fresh food so I am going to try that... Thanks Lin :-)
I am off to the bank and then coming home and try to water if it is not to hot yet... Is already in the 80's Then I am going to play with my streps and take cuttings and put them up... So do any of you have better luck with putting a whole leaf or cutting them in half? I have some that have really BIG leaves like my Roulette Cherry. stupid huh I did this the first time when Kim came down and we did it like nothing now I am wondering how to do it....Kim get your but down here so we can put up streps and have fun doing it...LOLOL
Hugs,
Susan